Questa ricerca indaga come il “caso Ustica” si è articolato nell’opinione pubblica italiana negli anni compresi tra il 1980 e il 1992. Con l'espressione “caso Ustica” ci si riferisce al problema politico determinato dalle vicende legate all’abbattimento dell’aereo civile DC-9 dell’Itavia, avvenuto il 27 giugno 1980 in circostanze che, come noto, furono chiarite solamente a distanza di molti anni dal fatto. L’analisi intende cogliere le specificità del processo che ha portato la vicenda di Ustica ad acquisire rilevanza politica nell’ambito della sfera pubblica italiana, in particolare prendendo in considerazione il ruolo svolto dall’opinione pubblica in un decennio, quale quello degli anni ’80 e dei primi anni ’90 italiani, caratterizzato da una nuova centralità dei media rispetto alla sfera politica. Attraverso l’analisi di un’ampia selezione di fonti a stampa (circa 1500 articoli dei principali quotidiani italiani e circa 700 articoli tratti dagli organi dei partiti politici italiani) si sono pertanto messe in luce le dinamiche mediatiche e politiche che hanno portato alla tematizzazione di una vicenda che era rimasta fino al 1986 totalmente assente dall’agenda politica nazionale. L’analisi delle fonti giudiziarie ha permesso inoltre di verificare come la politicizzazione del caso Ustica, costruita intorno alla tensione opacità/trasparenza del potere politico e all’efficace quanto banalizzante paradigma delle “stragi di Stato”, sia risultata funzionale al raggiungimento, dopo il 1990, dei primi elementi di verità sulla tragedia e all’ampiamento del caso a una dimensione internazionale. / This research investigates how the "Ustica case" developed in the Italian public opinion between 1980 and 1992. The term "Ustica case" refers to the political problem determined by the vicissitudes of slaughter happened to the civil place DC-9 Itavia, which occurred June the 27th 1980 in circumstances which, as noted, were clarified only after many years after the fact. The analysis is intended to capture the specificity of the process that led to the events of Ustica to acquire political relevance in the context of the Italian public sphere, in particular taking into account the role played by public opinion in a decade, such as that of the '80s and early 90s in Italy, characterized by a new centrality of the media with respect to the political sphere. Through the analysis of a wide selection of printed sources (about 1500 items of the main Italian newspapers and about 700 articles taken from the organs of Italian political parties) have therefore highlighted the media and political dynamics that led to the theming of an issue that had remained until 1986 completely absent from national politics agenda. The analysis of judicial sources also allowed to check how the politicization of the “Ustica case”, built around the tension opacity / transparency of political power and around effective as trivializing paradigm of "massacres of State", is found at the achievement, after 1990, of the first elements of truth about the tragedy and of the widening of the issue to an international dimension.

Questa tesi di dottorato, partendo dall’assunto teorico secondo cui lo sport, pur essendo un fenomeno periferico e non decisivo del sistema politico internazionale, debba considerarsi, in virtù della sua elevata visibilità, sia come un componente delle relazioni internazionali sia come uno strumento di politica estera, si pone l’obiettivo di investigare, con un approccio di tipo storico-politico, l’attività internazionale dello sport italiano nel decennio che va dal 1943 al 1953. Nello specifico viene dedicata una particolare attenzione agli attori e alle istituzioni della “politica estera sportiva”, al rientro dello sport italiano nel consesso internazionale e alla sua forza legittimante di attrazione culturale. Vengono approfonditi altresì alcuni casi relativi a «crisi politiche» che influirono sullo sport e a «crisi sportive» che influenzarono la politica. La ricerca viene portata avanti con lo scopo primario di far emergere, da un lato se e quanto coscientemente lo sport sia stato usato come strumento di politica estera da parte dei governi e della diplomazia dell’Italia repubblicana, dall’altro quanto e con quale intensità lo sviluppo dell’attività internazionale dello sport italiano abbia avuto significative ripercussioni sull’andamento e dai rapporti di forza della politica internazionale. / The argument of the present work is that sport is a peripheral and not vital phenomenon in the international political system, but because of its high public visibility it has to be considered both as a part of international relations and a foreign policy tool for governments and diplomacy. The present PhD study aims at inquiring, in a historical-political approach, into the international role of sport in the decade 1943-1953. It will give particular attention to the actors and institutions of the “sporting foreign policy”, to the Italian re-entering into the international sport arena and its soft power; in addition, attention will be drawn to some particular “political crises” that touched the sporting activity and to some “sporting crises” obliging the intervention of the government and diplomacy. The final aim of the study is to understand if and how sport was consciously used as a foreign policy tool, and at what degree of intensity the international activity of the Italian sport was influenced by the development and the balance of power in international politics.

Negli anni Ottanta si assiste tanto nel vecchio quanto nel nuovo continente alla rinascita del movimento antinucleare. Mentre in Europa l’origine di questa ondata di proteste antinucleari è collegata alla “doppia decisione” NATO del 1979, negli Stati Uniti la genesi si colloca nel contesto dalla mobilitazione dei gruppi ambientalisti in seguito all’incidente alla centrale nucleare di Three Mile Island. Dopo l’elezione di Ronald Reagan, alle proteste contro le applicazioni pacifiche dell’atomo si affiancarono quelle contro la politica nucleare del Paese. La retorica di Reagan, il massiccio piano di riarmo, unitamente al rinnovato deteriorarsi delle relazioni tra USA e URSS contribuirono a diffondere nell’opinione pubblica la sensazione che l’amministrazione Reagan, almeno da un punto di vista teorico, non avesse escluso dalle sue opzioni il ricorso alle armi nucleari nel caso di un confronto con l’URSS. I timori legati a questa percezione produssero una nuova ondata di proteste che assunsero dimensioni di massa grazie alla mobilitazione provocata dalla Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (NWFC). Il target della NWFC era l’ampio programma di riarmo nucleare sostenuto da Reagan, che secondo gli attivisti nucleari, in un quadro di crescenti tensioni internazionali, avrebbe fatto aumentare le possibilità di uno scontro atomico. Per evitare lo scenario dell’olocausto nucleare, la NWFC proponeva «un congelamento bilaterale e verificabile del collaudo, dell’installazione e della produzione di armi nucleari». L’idea del nuclear freeze, che era concepito come un passo per fermare la spirale del riarmo e tentare successivamente di negoziare riduzioni negli arsenali delle due superpotenze, riscosse un tale consenso nell’opinione pubblica americana da indurre l’amministrazione Reagan a formulare una risposta specifica. Durante la primavera del 1982 fu, infatti, creato un gruppo interdipartimentale ad hoc, l’Arms Control Information Policy Group, con il compito di arginare l’influenza della NWFC sull’opinione pubblica americana e formulare una risposta coerente alle critiche del movimento antinucleare. / At the end of the Seventies, the antinuclear movement in both Europe and in the United States experienced a resurgence, having lain dormant for much of the previous decade. In Europe, the origin of this fresh antinuclear wave is most often traced back to NATO’s ‘double track’ decision of 1979. In America, environmental groups mobilized against the use of nuclear power following the accident at Three Mile Island, while at the same time the fear of nuclear war reinforced the movement for nuclear disarmament, which criticised the nuclear military build-up and the collapse of détente. In the early 1980s therefore the American antinuclear movement experienced a renaissance, due also to the convergence between the well-established pacifist tradition and the new political environmentalism. The organization through which the U.S. antinuclear movement became a mass phenomenon during Reagan tenure was the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (NWFC). The target of the NWFC was Reagan’s nuclear build-up that, according to antinuclear activists, was increasing the peril of a nuclear confrontation. To avoid this scenario the movement proposed a bilateral freeze on nuclear weapons. At the same time the Reagan administration created an ad hoc interdepartmental group, the Arms Control Information Policy Group in order to face the NWFC’s influence on public opinion and to shape the public debate on arms control issue. The interplay between the Freeze movement and the White House took the form of a competition to gain the support of American public opinion. In analyzing this interplay, this study try to understand how the resurgence of antinuclear activism in the Eighties how the fear of nuclear annihilation helped to elevate public awareness of peace and disarmament issues, how disarmament movements attempted to influence government decision-making, how the dialogue about nuclear weapons between antinuclear groups and policy-makers evolved.

La ricerca è stata incentrata su di una fonte di grande importanza per una più puntuale comprensione della vita del regno di Federico II: il Quaternus excadenciarum Capitinate. Essa ha tenuto presenti le altre fonti coeve: Liber Augustalis, Registro della Cancelleria di Federico II degli anni 1239-1240, fonti cronachistiche. Il Quaternus è un inventario di talune particolari categorie di beni demaniali, le excadencie, la cui concessione è scaduta e pertanto ritornano al fisco. Tali beni sono situati in 33 località del Giustizierato di Capitanata. Senza data, è stato redatto tra il 1249 e il 1250 (risultano inseriti i beni confiscati a Pier della Vigna, bollato di tradimento nel febbraio 1249). Obiettivo della ricerca è stato duplice: 1) analizzare e approfondire le questioni di natura giuridico-istituzionale ed economica implicate nel documento e tentare di ricostruire uno spaccato della Capitanata del XIII sec.; 2) offrire una nuova e più corretta edizione del testo. La prima parte dello studio ha inteso inquadrare il documento nel contesto delle esigenze proprie delle monarchie del tempo di tenere sotto controllo i beni immobili di ciascun regno ed analizzare la politica economica fridericiana (capp. I, II). La seconda parte è stata dedicata agli approfondimenti innanzi ricordati. Essa è struttura in sette capitoli (I. Il Quaternus excadenciarum Capitinate; II. Beni e diritti costituenti le excadencie Capitinate; III. Il Quaternus come specchio di una politica dispotica; IV. La gestione delle excadencie; V. Pesi e misure; VI. Monete e valori; VII. Il Quaternus come documento sullo stato della Capitanata nel XIII secolo). In appendice: tabelle che offrono per ciascuna delle 33 località considerate, puntuali indicazioni dei beni e diritti censiti, dei nomi dei titolari delle concessioni (spesso personaggi di rango) e delle relative rendite. / The research was focused on a source of great importance for a more accurate understanding of the life of the reign of Frederick II: the Quaternus excadenciarum Capitinate. It took into consideration other contemporary sources: Liber Augustalis, Registry of the Chancellery of Frederick II during the years 1239-1240, chronicle sources. The Quaternus is an inventory of some specific categories of state properties, the excadencie, whose granting expired and therefore returns to the tax authorities. Those goods are located in 33 places in Giustizierato of Capitanata. Undated, it was written between in 1249 and 1250 (are inserted confiscated properties of Pier della Vigna, charged with treason in February 1249). The objective of the research was twofold: 1) to analyze and investigate the nature of legal, institutional and economic issues implicated in the document and try to reconstruct an insight of the Capitanata of the thirteenth century; 2) to offer a new and more correct edition of the text. The first part of the study has sought to frame the document in the context of the specific requirements of the monarchies of that time to control the property of each kingdom and analyze economic policy of Frederick (chaps. I, II). The second part was dedicated to insights recalled above. It consists of seven chapters (I. The Quaternus excadenciarum Capitinate; II. Goods and rights constituting the excadencie Capitinate; III. The Quaternus as a mirror of a despotic policy; IV. The management of excadencie; V. Weights and measures; VI. Coins and values; VII. The Quaternus as document on the state of the Capitanata in the thirteenth century). In Appendix: tables offering for each of the 33 considered locations, timely indications of goods and rights counted, the concessions holders names (often people of rank) and the related revenues.

The general aim of this dissertation was to uncover the association between psychosocial factors and rehabilitation outcome after stroke. METHOD. A sample of patients with stroke (n=40) and their caregivers (n=36) were assessed at admission to and six months after discharge from rehabilitation hospital, using the following instruments: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, structured interview based on Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research, Symptom Questionnaire, Psychosocial Index, Psychological Well-Being Scales, and Family Assessment Device. 40 subjects from the general population underwent the same psychological assessment. In addition, patients' functional status was measured using the Functional Independence Measure. RESULTS. Stroke survivors reported lower education and higher alcohol consumption than controls. No significant differences emerged between the two groups in the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses or psychosomatic syndromes, however patients reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, and lower autonomy than controls. Caregivers reported significantly higher scores in anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms compared to normative data, while no impairments emerged in psychological well-being and family functioning. At six-month follow-up, in patients a significant decrease in smoking habit and an increase in DSM diagnoses were reported. Both stroke survivors and caregivers showed significant reductions in anxiety, with patients displaying also a decrease in somatic symptoms, an increase in stress and a deterioration in quality of life. Significant deteriorations in several aspects of family functioning was perceived only by patients. An association between patients' functional recovery in the cognitive domain and family behavior control emerged. For caregivers, family functioning significantly predicted hostility and somatic symptoms were associated with family affective involvement. CONCLUSIONS. These data highlight the utility in the Italian setting of the adoption of a psychosocial assessment and a family-systems approach in stroke rehabilitation, in order to development interventions properly targeted to the characteristics of patients and their family members.

Emotional intelligence (EI) represents an attribute of contemporary attractiveness for the scientific psychology community. Of particular interest for the present thesis are the conundrum related to the representation of this construct conceptualized as a trait (i.e., trait EI), which are in turn reflected in the current lack of agreement upon its constituent elements, posing significant challenges to research and clinical progress. Trait EI is defined as an umbrella personality-alike construct reflecting emotion-related dispositions and self-perceptions. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) was chosen as main measure, given its strong theoretical and psychometrical basis, including superior predictive validity when compared to other trait EI measures. Studies 1 and 2 aimed at validating the Italian 153-items forms of the TEIQue devoted to adolescents and adults. Analyses were done to investigate the structure of the questionnaire, its internal consistencies and gender differences at the facets, factor, and global level of both versions. Despite some low reliabilities, results from Studies 1 and 2 confirm the four-factor structure of the TEIQue. Study 3 investigated the utility of trait EI in a sample of adolescents over internalizing conditions (i.e., symptoms of anxiety and depression) and academic performance (grades at math and Italian language/literacy). Beyond trait EI, concurrent effects of demographic variables, higher order personality dimensions and non-verbal cognitive ability were controlled for. Study 4a and Study 4b addressed analogue research questions, through a meta-analysis and new data in on adults. In the latter case, effects of demographics, emotion regulation strategies, and the Big Five were controlled. Overall, these studies showed the incremental utility of the TEIQue in different domains beyond relevant predictors. Analyses performed at the level of the four-TEIQue factors consistently indicated that its predictive effects were mainly due to the factor Well-Being. Findings are discussed with reference to potential implication for theory and practice.

Abstract Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal abnormality (total or partial absence of one of the sexual chromosomes in some or all cells of the body), which affects approximately 1:2000 female. Principal characteristics are short stature and gonadal disgenesis. Clinical management consist of Growth Hormone (GH) treatment and oestrogen replacement therapy (HRT), to induce development of secondary characteristics and to avoid the sequelae of oestrogen deficiency. Aim of the study: To assess clinical management, quality of life (QoL) and general psychosocial adjustment of women with TS. Population: 70 adult Caucasian females with TS (mean age: 27.8, ± 7.6; range 18-48 y.). Setting: Specialist service for Rare Disease care, University Hospital. Methods: Subjects were required to fill in questionnaires collecting ASR, WHOQOL, and 8 open questions. Data were compared with those of the Italian population or to those collected in a comparison group (70 healthy females, mean age: 27.9, ±7.3, range 21-48 y.). Results: Women with TS are educated as well as the Italian Population, but they have a less successful professional life. They show good QoL in general, but they appeared less satisfied in social area. They had statistically higher scores than the comparison group for depression, anxiety and withdrawal. Are less involved in a love relationship. Diagnosis communication was mostly performed by doctors or parents, satisfaction was higher when information was given by parents. Main preoccupation about TS are infertility, feeling of being different and future health problem. Conclusions: Italian people with TS were generally well adapted and have a good QoL, but lived more often with parents and show impaired sentimental and sexual life. They have higher degree of psychological distress compared to a comparison group. Psychological intervention should firstly address parents in order to encourage an open communication on diagnosis issues and on sexual education.

Questa tesi di carattere antropologico in ambito dottorale riguarda i rituali comunitari nelle comunità indigene messicane. Il principale oggetto della ricerca è il rituale della pioggia o di Petición de Lluvia, caratterizzato sia dal sacrificio animale che da una specifica relazione di causa-effetto con l’ambiente circostante. La ricerca etnografica è cominciata dall’ipotesi di voler verificare la persistenza nel tempo, e dunque nell’attualità, di procedure cerimoniali non appartenenti, almeno nella loro forma più lineare, alla religione cattolico-cristiana. Il luogo nel quale è avvenuta tale ricerca è la regione La Montaña di Guerrero, situata nel Messico sud-occidentale, e più precisamente la zona in cui vivono le comunità di etnia Nahua di San Pedro Petlacala, Acuilpa, e Xalpatláhuac che si trovano nelle vicinanze della cittadina di Tlapa de Comonfort. In un contesto ambientale profondamente rurale come quello della Montaña di Guerrero, la persistenza dei rituali evidenzia come le risorse naturali e gli agenti atmosferici - pioggia, vento, nubi - continuino a rappresentare gli elementi centrali che condizionano le variabili economiche di sussistenza e della riproduzione sociale. Il rituale di Petición de Lluvia rappresenta il momento di congiunzione tra la stagione secca e quella piovosa, tra la semina ed il raccolto del mais. Definito come una pratica religiosa nella quale il gruppo si identifica e partecipa con varie donazioni (ofrenda o deposito rituale), suddivisibili in alimenti/oggetti/preghiere ed azioni rituali, la cerimonia esprime l’auspicio di piogge abbondanti, con le quali irrigare i campi e continuare le attività umane. Il destinatario dell’offerta è la stessa divinità della pioggia, Tlaloc per le antiche civiltà mesoamericane, invocato sotto le mentite spoglie del santo patrono del 25 aprile, San Marcos. Il rituale è contraddistinto per tutta la sua durata dalla presenza del principale specialista religioso, sacerdote in lingua spagnola oppure «Tlahmáquetl» in lingua náhuatl. / This doctoral thesis concerns native’s rituals in Mexican’s indigenous communities from an anthropological point of view. The main object of the research is the ritual of the rain, or Petición de Lluvias, characterized both by animal sacrifice and by a specific cause-and-effect relationship with the surrounding environment. Ethnographic research has begun on the assumption that we want to verify the persistence of ceremonial procedures that do not belong completely to the Catholic religion. The research was developed in the region of Montaña de Guerrero, situated in South-western Mexico, where live the community of ethnic group Nahua and more precisely in the village of San Pedro Petlacala, Acuilpa, e Xalpatláhuac in the neighborhood of the small town Tlapa de Comonfort. In an environmental context deeply rural as that of the Montaña de Guerrero, the persistence of the rituals draw attention on how the natural resources and the atmospheric agents - rain, wind, clouds - continue to represent the central elements that affect economic variables of subsistence and of social reproduction. The ritual of Petición de Lluvia represents the moment of conjunction between the dry and the rainy season, between planting and harvest of corn. Defined as a religious practice in which the group identifies itself and participates with various donations (ofrenda or ritual deposit), it can be divided into food/objects/prayers and ritual actions. The ceremony expresses the hope of abundant rainfall, which irrigates the fields and continues the human activities. The receiver of the offer is the same divinity of the rain, Tlaloc to the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations, invoked in the guise of the patron saint of 25 April, San Marcos.The performance of the ritual is distinguished for its entire duration by the presence of the main religious specialist, sacerdote (minister) in Spanish language or Tlahmaquetl in nahuatl language.

La tesi è una ricerca di storia politica che affianca due diverse “storie” di centro-sinistra, quella nazionale e quella che vide protagonista la Democrazia Cristiana del Trentino. Lo studio analizza i fatti attraverso il filtro delle DC come se quello trentino e quello nazionale fossero due partiti, per poi tentare di capire ciò che accadeva alla loro sinistra alla ricerca dei diversi pesi e dei differenti equilibri che al centro e alla periferia si manifestavano nei rapporti con il PSI e con il PCI, e per osservare le reazioni della Chiesa così da valutare se le gerarchie romane e quelle trentine interagirono in modo differente sugli sviluppi delle rispettive esperienze politiche di quegli anni. Il testo è organizzato in quattro capitoli. Il primo e il secondo (speculari e dedicati allo stesso lustro: 1955-1960) rappresentano un confronto tra i differenti iter d’avvicinamento al centro-sinistra che la politica nazionale e quella trentina sperimentarono nella seconda metà degli anni Cinquanta. Nel terzo capitolo (1960-1964) e nel quarto (1964-1968) le vicende nazionali e quelle locali sono invece raccontate in modo intrecciato, ripercorrendo le diverse fasi dell’alleanza tra Democrazia Cristiana e Partito Socialista, e nel contempo dando conto della trasformazione del Trentino da una realtà di tipo agricolo ad una di tipo industriale, del passaggio da una comunità di tipo cattolico tradizionale ad una che si accinge a vivere in un contesto secolarizzato, e da una società che si autopercepisce come periferica ad una che ospita una delle contestazioni studentesche più peculiari, incisive e note d’Italia. / This thesis is a research of political history focusing on the evolution of the coalition built between the Italian Parties Democrazia Cristiana (DC) and Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) in the Italian region of Trentino Alto Adige. The study analyses the facts through the filter of the political party DC as if the local and the national were two parties, then tries to understand what was happening to their left, by researching the different way of behaving towards the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) at national and at regional level. Another element of the research was to observe the reactions of the Church in order to assess whether the Roman and the Trentino hierarchies interacted differently during the developments of their political experiences during those years. The paper is organised into four chapters. The first and second (structured in the same way and dedicated to the same five years: 1955-1960) represent a comparison of the different process of approaching the center-left that the national and the trentino politics experienced during the second half of the Fifties. In the third chapter (1960-1964) and the fourth (1964-1968) national and local events are reported in a twisted way, retracing the different phases of the alliance between the Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party, and at the same time explaining the transformation experienced by Trentino from a rural land into an industrial region, the transition from a traditional Catholic community type to one that is going to live in a secular context, and from a society that perceives itself as peripheral into one that hosts one of the most distinctive, influential and famous students protest of Italy.

La Confraternita bolognese di S. Maria della Morte, istituita nel 1336 sull’onda della predicazione del frate domenicano Venturino da Bergamo, è la più antica e meglio documentata compagnia italiana ‘di giustizia’. Possedeva un laudario conosciuto attraverso 12 manoscritti redatti tra XV e XVI secolo, dove le laude seguono il “confortatorio” che insegnava ai confratelli come relazionarsi col condannato e prepararlo a morire in perfetto spirito cristiano. Nelle laude l’identificazione poetica tra Cristo e il condannato era funzionale allo scopo di convertire il criminale in santo, convincendolo che la sua morte aveva una funzione redentrice per sé e la città stessa. L’assoluzione plenaria poteva essere ottenuta solo tramite una morte completamente accettata e un pentimento sincero. La dissertazione indaga le tematiche espresse dalle laude e le motivazioni forti che spingevano i confortatori a intraprendere questa peculiare attività assistenziale. / During the fifteenth century a number of laude were destined for the spiritual edification of those condemned to death. The Bolognese confraternity of S. Maria della Morte, founded in 1336 and among the oldest and best-documented Italian Companies of Justice, had a laudario known now in some twelve sources, mostly dating from the second half of the fifteenth century. These laude are often connected to the ‘consolation manuals’ (confortatori) written in some Italian confraternities in order to instruct brethren who in the few hours before death prepared the prisoner to die in a Christian spirit. In the justice laude the poetic identification between the condemned and Christ or martyrs was functional to the main aim of the brethren who assisted prisoners destined to die: by turning the criminal into a saint he could be convinced that his death had a precise function. Indeed, plenary absolution in the afterlife could be obtained through a truly accepted death. The laude in the confortatori clearly had the function of reinforcing these feelings, but there is little evidence on just how this task was realized in practice. During the night preceding the execution of the prisoners, the brethren sought to turn every criminal into a saint: in the end he must have the conviction that his death had a precise function, and thus he would attain complete inner peace and total acceptance of his sentence. This serene attitude was the basis for a plenary absolution in the afterlife, obtained through a death that was fully accepted. This dissertation focuses on the strong motivation of the brethren who decided to enter this kind of confraternity.